Sydney FC have progressed to the quarter finals of the FFA Cup with a dominant 3-1 win over NSW Premier League side Sydney United 58 FC at Edensor Park.

Two wonder strikes from Sky Blues’ 19 year old midfielder Christopher Naumoff and a brilliant solo goal from Iraqi International Ali Abbas sealed the victory, and lined up a home quarter final clash with Adelaide United in the next round.

Sydney United scored on the stroke of half time after a defensive error allowed Stjepan Paric to equalise and add some spice to proceeding, but the quality of the Hyundai A-League club in the second half won through.

What They Said

Graham Arnold: “I thought it was a fantastic evening for Sydney Croatia and it brought back a lot of great memories for me being here, I’m glad they had a great night. They made it difficult for us to get in behind them. We scored three great goals and Bernie Ibini has hit the bar with another, it was a great night.

“Chris is a fantastic kid, I’m excited to try and bring a kid like him through. I’m just happy that we got all 12-13 players off the field with no injuries.”

Arnold on the FFA Cup draw: “Adelaide are going to be a tough proposition this year, they’ve had the same coach now for a year and no doubt they’ll be much tougher.”

Christopher Naumoff: “It’s great to score two goals in front of a big crowd in an FFA Cup was great but more importantly we got the result for the team now we are progressing through to the next round.”

“They are the things (the goals) that you work on in training and work hard on every day so it was good to score those. As soon as I shot you don’t really know if they are going in until they hit the back of the net.”

Photo: Mike McCoy

Goals

24’ NAUMOFF GOAL – Christopher Naumoff played a neat one two with Alex Brosque, received the ball back and hit a stunning left foot strike into the top left hand corner of Costa’s goal to give the Sky Blues the lead.

45’ PARIC GOAL – A regulation cross into the box from the Sydney United left is miskicked by Petkovic and falls to Pavlovic who hit a first time shot which is saved by Janjetovic but Paric pounced on the loose ball to slot home.

60’ NAUMOFF GOAL – Naumoff received a pass on the left edge of the box, he took one touch and smashed a left foot shot across the keeper and into the far corner of the net from an acute angle. What a strike from the youngster.

90’ + 3’ ABBAS GOAL – Abbas received the ball on the right hand touchline, jinked inside two defenders and slotted the ball inside the bottom corner to decide the game in Sydney FC’s favour.

Key Moments

26’ TOMIC HITS THE BAR – Sydney United almost rebound straight back after the Sydney FC goal. They won a free kick on the left hand side of the pitch and crossed into the box where Tomic rose to head against the bar before Janjetovic picked up the loose ball.

35’ BROSQUE PENALTY APPEAL – Gersbach played the ball down the left hand side of the field to Brosque who took on his Kofinas and surged into the box. The right back had his arms across Brosque who went down but referee Kris Griffiths Jones waved away his appeal for a penalty.

36’ IBINI SHOT SPILLED – Ibini picked up the ball and drove forward towards goal before taking a shot from around 22 yards. Costa spilled the ball in front of him and Sydney United cleared before a Sydney FC player could get to the ball.

67’ IBINI HITS THE BAR – Alex Brosque found Bernie Ibini with some good play and the striker crashed the ball off the bar.

71’ BROSQUE HEADER SAVED – Smeltz got himself to the byline in the right of the box and managed to cut the ball back to Brosque who headed goalward but Costa flew to his right to pluck from the air.

Sydney FC Head Coach Graham Arnold made four changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Wellington Phoenix four days earlier. Peter Triantis and Ali Abbas came into the midfield instead of Milos Dimitrijevic and Terry Antonis who took a place on the bench. Alex Gersbach came in at left back with Matt Jurman moving to the bench, while Christopher Naumoff replaced Marc Janko in the forward line.

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